Intrexon Appoints Leading Life Sciences Executive to Key Leadership Position

BLACKSBURG, VA--(Marketwire - June 27, 2011) -

Intrexon Corporation, a privately held synthetic biology company, today announced the appointment of Glenn E. Nedwin, Ph.D., MBA as President of its Human Therapeutics Division and a Senior Vice President of the corporation.

Dr. Nedwin brings 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and life sciences industries, having held key executive roles at multiple leading companies. Most recently he was Executive Vice President at Genencor, a division of Danisco, which was recently acquired by the DuPont Corporation. Dr. Nedwin was responsible for the $330M+ Technical Enzyme Business Unit at Genencor and a member of the Danisco Leadership Forum.

Dr. Nedwin started his career as a Post-doctoral Fellow at Genentech, Inc., where he was a key member of the team responsible for cloning and expressing several human cytokines, including TNF-alpha. He spent over a decade in the pharmaceutical side of biotechnology where he held leadership positions in several immunotherapeutic companies including co-founding Molecular Therapeutics, Inc. (a Bayer AG company) and Ideon Corporation and was VP Corporate Development at Xoma Corporation. Dr. Nedwin then spent the next 19 years in industrial biotechnology where, as co-founder and President of Novozymes Inc., he ran Novozymes’ US R&D headquarters, as well as being active in business development. Dr. Nedwin is Co-Editor in Chief of the “Industrial Biotechnology Journal,” has served as Vice-Chairman on the Board of Trustees at the University of California, Davis and remains active on several UC Davis Advisory Boards. Dr. Nedwin holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the State University of New York College at Buffalo, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside and a Masters Degree in the Management of Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Dr. Nedwin’s appointment is a major recruiting milestone for Intrexon according to its Chairman and CEO, Randal J. (RJ) Kirk, who has been serving as acting president of the company’s Human Therapeutics Division. According to Kirk, “Today’s announcement is the culmination of our diligent search for an exceptional executive leader who also fully grasps the essential role that synthetic biology must, and will, play in next-generation therapeutics. Glenn exceeded my expectations on both dimensions. I believe his multi-faceted career, spanning therapeutics and industrial products, will enable him to maximize the potential of Intrexon’s synthetic biology platform for human therapeutics. I welcome Glenn to this exciting mission and the opportunity to fully deploy his outstanding leadership talents.”

Nedwin underscored Kirk’s perspective. “My career trajectory helped illuminate the opportunity for Intrexon’s capabilities in human therapeutics, which I find truly remarkable in its breadth and breakthrough potential. Industrial markets demand faster, better, less costly products as an inherent aspect of customer expectations and corresponding partnering collaborations. It must become the same for therapeutic products and partnerships, particularly in light of the escalating financial strain on government and consumer budgets. The ultimate solution lies within an industry-shaping company like Intrexon, which is bringing to fruition the type of novel technology platform and rapid engineering processes that will shift the pharmaceutical industry away from its costly and protracted discovery-based model and much closer to the engineering-based product cycles that drive stakeholder success in other industries. I am thrilled to join this exceptional company and look forward to applying my talents on behalf of its Human Therapeutics Division and overarching global mission.”

About Intrexon Corporation
Intrexon Corporation is a privately held synthetic biology company that employs modular DNA control systems to enhance capabilities, improve safety and lower cost in human therapeutics, protein production, industrial products, agricultural biotechnology, and animal science. The company’s advanced transgene engineering platform enables Better DNA™ by combining revolutionary DNA control systems with corresponding advancements in modular transgene design, assembly and optimization. More information about the company is available at www.DNA.com.